1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital data reproducing apparatus and a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Audio and video digital data stored in a recording medium such as CD (Compact Disc) are converted into the MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer-3) format and transferred to an external memory such as a portable player through USB (universal Serial Bus), etc., in some cases. Such encoding of digital data for transfer to the external memory such as compression is called ripping. A reproducing apparatus such as an audio device or a personal computer may perform the ripping to transfer the data generated by the ripping to an external memory while reading digital data at the same speed as the reproduction speed and reproducing the read digital data to output audio or video (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-133955). When such a reproducing apparatus is used, ripped data may be transferred to an external memory while enjoying audio and video.
The data generated by the ripping is temporarily stored in a work memory inside or outside the reproducing apparatus. The data stored in the work memory are read and transferred to the external memory through USB, etc. When the transfer speed to the external memory is lower than the ripping speed or when the transfer to the external memory is temporarily interrupted, the ripped data are accumulated in the work memory and the remaining capacity of the work memory is reduced. In such a case, the readout of digital data from a recording medium such as CD must temporarily be stopped to prevent the work memory from overflowing. If the readout of digital data is temporarily stopped in the case of ripping during reproduction, the reproduction of audio or video is discontinued while the read out is stopped since the digital data are read at the same speed as the reproduction speed.